Anyone ever trade/sell the P and J for a Ric?

The idea of getting rid of X in order to get Y is an odd concept to me. The three basses that you mention all sound, play, and feel different from one another. I'm not sure that I see why removing one (or more) from your collection is a dependency for getting another - unless it's a finance issue?

There is also the heavily discussed suggestion throughout Talkbass: Rics are very different from Fenders in terms of playability and ergonomics. It is best to play one before deciding to buy one.

 

I've done something very similar, which is pass up a Fender P (and a J) to get a rickenbacker. In fact, I owned/gigged 4001/3's for many years and did nearly all of my gigging with a rick. Far more than I actually gigged with a Jazz bass and only once or twice played a Precision bass in a live situation.

As for whether it was a good idea or not, I can't really give a straight answer. Instead, I'll give a wishy-washy "no, it wasn't a good idea" answer.

Now, I will say I love the rick 4003 and plan to get another one one day, but in saying that if I had my gigging career, such as it was, to do over again, I'd have gone with the jazz bass or similar. And done a 4003 as "specialty" bass, only when I needed its particular tone.

As my main, #1 meat-n-potatoes bass, though, no I wouldn't have a 4003 in that spot. There are just too many "issues" with gigging a rick in a live situation for me to use it for that. I won't go into that here.

Again, in saying all that, I love the 4003 and it really does have an amazing look, almost like a work of art. And the tone is very distinctive and can be a really nice touch depending on the effect you want to achieve. I don't have one at the moment, but once I win the lotto, I do plan on getting another one.

My gigging days are behind me now, so it's hard to say what I'd drag to a gig nowadays knowing what I know now. It would probably be a fretted L2K if I just had to play gigs in front of a live audience....

L

 

Right now, I only have a Ric. No problem - it's a very well-made, great sounding, great playing bass.

My only advice is to play what inspires you to play.

 

I'm an old Pbass guy that loves a nice Ric . Still have the old Pbass though .

 

I got rid of a four string J to get a 4003. Does that count? That being said, I still have a Jazz style 5er.

 

Not at all. I've only had it for about 6 months, but the Ric is fast becoming my fave. The 4 string P hardly sees the light of day anymore, but I still bust out the Valenti J 5er regularly.

 

My first bass was a late '60s Jazz Bass that my parents bought for me in 1971. It was great as it was the first bass I'd owned, but shortly after getting it I "discovered" Yes. Then, in early 1973 I got to play a Rick for the first time that a high school friend owned, a FG 4001, soon followed by seeing Genesis in April 1973 (their first US tour, opening for It's A beautiful Day) whereupon I saw and heard a RM1999 (model not known to me at the time), played by Mike Rutherford.

The hunt was on!

A few months later I found out about a Rick bass that a guy had and we talked shop. At some point in the discussion we agreed to trade basses, but I was a bit reluctant as the Rick bass he had was this hollowbody instrument with binding on the front and back, totally unlike any other Rick I had learned about up to that time, through bands such as Deep Purple, Yes, and Genesis. I made the trade as I really wanted a Rick and that particular bass was what was around in my area, so, why not?

I have bought and sold/traded/gave away several other Jazz Basses over the ensuing decades, but that February 1967 4005WB in Jetglo stayed with me until the summer of 2011 when I finally sold it, 38 years later. It had seen lots of gigs (college dive bars up through big festival stages, and everything in between) plus lots of recording time on original material.

To me, it was a good idea to make that trade. Never regretted it.

 

I always have a Rickenbacker bass, even if it’s the only bass i own.
They’ve never let me down. Right now, I have 5 of them, and my P and J bass needs are covered by G&L versions. The Ricks are my go-to basses, but i do really love my GL JB2 for that classic J bass sound. (For me, that means picked flatwounds.)
My GL LB100, essentially a P bass, is great, but i don’t find myself using it for much. And I am thinking of selling/trading it for another bass,which could be another Rick. (Or something else).

 

Do tell?

 

Absolutely the same. I was "warned" that if I started on a Ric, I'd become a "Ric guy"; I did and I have. No issues playing one out either, other than being constantly complimented on my great tone and how beautiful the instrument is. It seems that every musician in attendance also has a "the Rickenbacker that got away" story.

 

I started many years ago with a solidbody Hofner bass. (Short scale did not suit me then, or now).
My next bass was the venerable Fender Precious,er Precision, , which i found ponderous to play. (an early ‘70s one, then just a few years old,and already with a bad neck.)
The Goldilocks moment came with my next purchase, a 71-72 Rick 4000 neckthrough modded with an added toaster neck pickup. Perfection. (Pictured)
I’ve added J basses time and again to my arsenal,and tried a few other P basses including a 68 tele.
But I’ve never found Fenders to be all that compelling or necessary,when the Ricks do everything i need for a bass to do. My favorite Fender creation is the GL JB2, a smaller bodied Jazz bass.
I’m looking forward to trying out a GL Kiloton,also a smaller, slimmer bodied sort of passive Stingray creation.
It’s the next bass on the horizon for me. But I will always have a Rickenbacker.

 

i've never had the experience described in the OP, but i did go from a fretted ric to fenders without frets (back in the 70s), so: the opposite experience, more or less. if rics were made to swap out necks easily (parts basses like fenders) i'd likely be interested in one. i like the necks on some of them.

 

No. I did buy a new Ric 4003 SW. It was a beautiful work of crap. Playability was fine but damn... it was sooo noisy. Absolutely unusable in some venues where my Lull/Lakland/Marco J&P basses were fine. I did absolutely everything I could to quiet that monstrosity down. I threw in the towel finally, traded the Ric away. If you play in any RF/EMI slammed venues, prepare to leave the Ric at home...

 

I appreciate the frustration, but $10 gets you enough copper tape with conductive adhesive to shield two or three basses... my SW went from an antenna to dead silent with a couple of hours of work. My AG seems pretty quiet so far, but I need the state of emergency to lapse before I can take it over to my friend's place to test - his house is like a microwave oven with the RF/EMI pollution from the pot lighting in his basement. If the treble bezel arrives first, I'll just shield it preemptively, since the strings will need to come off anyway.

 

Oh I went way beyond just copper tape. Did that plus star grounding. Swapped pickups (lost too much Ric'o'tone). Swapped the bridge for a hipshot but that wasn't about noise... In a couple of local rf slammed bars it was more noise than I will allow. Same RF drives my guitarist's Tele and Strat to noise as well. So he only brings his PRS with 'buckets. I have no issues with P's or a Lakland with soap bars. My PJ has a side by side humbucking bridge pickup. Love that... Tough rooms that I've played for years.

 

Stop playing those rooms.............

 

I did just the opposite - sold my ‘76 RIC, after 35yrs... the sale ‘financed parts’ to assemble several FrankenFenders- two of which I still have!!